DE 20 2010 007 613 U1 describes a transmission system having a charging station of the type described above for the inductive charging of the traction battery of an electrically driven vehicle parked at the charging station. The transmission system includes a charging station-side transformer part and a vehicle-side transformer part. The charging station includes a charging coupler having the charging station-side transformer part. The vehicle-side transformer part is arranged on the vehicle behind the license plate of the vehicle. Electrical energy can be transferred from the charging station-side transformer part to the vehicle-side transformer part when the charging coupler is moved to a position relative to the license plate at which the transformer parts sandwich the license plate. The charging station further includes a motorized positioner configured to move the charging coupler in different spatial directions relative to the license plate. The charging station further includes a camera configured to detect the position of the charging coupler and the license plate relative to one another. The positioner is configured to use the camera information in order to precisely position the charging coupler with respect to the license plate and thereby position the transformer parts with respect to one another for optimal coupling.
Depending on how precisely the driver parks the vehicle relative to the charging coupler at the charging station prior to the process of the positioner positioning the charging coupler with respect to the license plate of the vehicle, the positioner has to be configured to move the charging coupler over a relatively large range of motion which makes the positioner relatively large and expensive.